The World

This is an elevation map of Apterra, around the time of abandonment. As there is only one dominant plant species at this time, distinct biomes are nonexistent. Green areas on this map (representing low, flat regions) have large expanses of turfgrasslands, while the higher yellows and reds are much sparser. In terms of climate, small ice caps exist at the poles, and a tropical band spans the equator, but most of the planet is temperate at this time.

The majority of the land is connected, forming a tremendous supercontinent across which terrestrial species easily disperse. A few major island landmasses exist, but they won’t become relevant for a while, as vertebrate life was only introduced on the mainland. Smaller and closer islands may already be inhabited as a result of short-distance swimming and rafting events. 

The supercontinent Panapterra is composed of three large bodies, each roughly equal in size. Corvolea II, before it shut down, named these after some of the megafauna it would have introduced there. The western continent, Ailuropia, was intended to be the home of Giant Pandas, while its neighbor was named Loxodia after the African elephants that could have thrived there. The southern continent, the largest contiguous landmass south of the equator, was called Abeli, as it was meant to be a refuge for Sumatran Orangutans. The two large islands off Abeli’s south shore are part of the Abelian continental plate (one in the early stages of being split apart by a rift), and they were given the less imaginative name Sub-Abeli.

Abeli, and specifically the large plain along its north, has the distinction of being the location where Corvolea first introduced the "big seven" macroscopic species. Within a few centuries Post-Abandonment, grasses, rats, insects, pill bugs, and livebearers had spread across Panapterra, with the less prolific kiwis and geckos surviving on the margins. The seas, for the time being, were empty of complex life, leaving the plankton to reign supreme. We will now leave Apterra alone and return to view its flora and fauna again in 20,000 years’ time.